Keeley D&M Drive Dual Drive Boost Pedal Reviews

I realized a couple months ago that since I bought this, I haven't used any of the other drive pedals I own, which I also realized is kind of an embarrassing amount. The boost side has a mid-pushed thing that gets a clean boost to a klon type overdrive, then the drive side has like a better blues breaker sort of feel. That klon/BB combo creates a really incredible range of tones that really fits my tastes, and the D&M drive does that with it's own flair while being super clear -- the boost doesn't get flubby in the low end and the drive doesn't get hissy in the top end. very, very happy with this.

This is the first time I've ever wrote a review on Sweetwater, or on a guitar pedal anywhere for that matter. But I've been purely impressed by this pedal and there are features on this pedal no one has mentioned. The boost (right side) is an amazing and interesting work of art. To break it down I'll be describing the gain knob as seen on a clock. 7 o'clock being minimum and 5 being max.
Boost Side:
7-8:30ish: Treble boost but adds enough gain to get a nice breakup of your signal. Maybe a slight vintage sounding, slight mid hump. Personally, I like this area for getting my split humbuckers to sound more like single coils. This setting does a great job at that. Split humbuckers never sound as good as true single coils, but this area on the boost side of the pedal can definitely help with that.

8:30-9:30: Transparent boost. For me, it sounds like turning the master volume up. Doesn't breakup the clean signal on my guitar, doesn't make it muddy or bright, just increased the volume and you can use the Level control for your taste on how much volume increase you want.

9:30-10:30: to me this area is sort of a bass/low mids boost. I personally don't stay in this area for much of my playing, but like the treble boost helping to sound more like single coils, I think this area could help single coils sound like humbuckers.

10:30-5: this is the Klon(e) area, kinda. I don't have a true Klon, but I do have the Wampler Tumnus and I matched the two pedal settings and they sound very very very similar and react the same with breakup, but the Keeley D&M is a lot brighter than the Tumnus. Level and Tone were set to noon for both pedals, only changing the gain to compare the two. BUT, I was able to get the D&M to sound pretty much identical to the Tumnus. With Tumnus all set to noon, D&M: Level 2oclock, Gain 2, Tone 10. At these settings, comparing the two side to side, the D&M sounded a bit more open, more headroom maybe or less compressed. The boost side is incredible just by itself.

The Drive:
It doesn't have distinctive changes in the gain like you'll find on the boost side, but from min to max you'll find tons of usable gain settings, all keeping the coloring of the guitar the same (boost side definitely changes coloring throughout). I run through a clean amp and the drive side can go from hardly no breakup, bluesy, to classic overdrive and heavy rock distortion from 70's- early 00's. I think there's a slight mid hump, and it does seem a little dark with the tone knob at noon, but easily clears up. I usually have the tone at 2oclock on the drive side. The two running together (I always have boost going first), you'll get that extra bit of distortion but the added brightness of the boost side. It's not gonna be a djent pedal or something for modern metal or chugging really. But if you wanted some thing with a ton of range and tonal possibilities, especially from a few decades ago, you can't go wrong with this pedal.

I have a Revv G3 to get me beyond the capabilities of the D&M Drive for distortion/ chug stuff. A Walrus Eons 5 stage fuzz, because honestly the D&M isn't gonna give you much of a fuzz hardon. And a Tumnus that's before all pedals mentioned above.

Last part of the long winded review, I would highly recommend some sort of boost before the D&M, if you can spare the coin and pedalboard space. Finding your favorite setting on the D&M and then being able to get just that much more out of it with your favorite boost has brought me to tonal bliss. Additionally, if you place the D&M at the end of your drive pedals, you can use the boost side as a volume increase for whatever drive pedal you have before it. I haven't tried it personally, but you might also be able to get not only get a volume boost but also a treble boost (if on settings shown above) for a solo or what have you.

Hope this helps someone, all these sounds interpretations are subjective but haven't seen it discussed and wanted to share.
Chain: LTD EC1000, JB(bridge)59(neck) > Tumnus>Fuzz>Revv G3>D&M Drive > Boss katana artist 100 MK2 CLEAN channel

We all know that making music is art and that the appreciation of that art - and the tools used to create and sculpt it - is subjective. But I'm pretty sure that anyone buying this drive pedal will discover, as I have, that it'll fulfill all your OD needs, and then some. It's two pedals in one enclosure, is unbelievably versatile beyond even that statement, and, at least in my humble opinion, makes sounds to die for. If you buy this pedal, you will not be disappointed. You know what? I'll go further than that: If you buy this pedal blind, without testing it or even hearing it, you will not be disappointed.

Exceeds all expectations. Wow! Great addition to any pedalboard.

I absolutely love this dual overdrive! The fact that it has a built in boost is what pulled me to it. I was looking at adding a separate boost pedal after my drive section on my board but this saved me the money and space. You can use the drive and boost separately and that is amazing! Plus I love that pedal show and what a cool way to show support.

As a big fan of Dan and Mick from That Pedal Show, I wanted to like this pedal. But even with that bias going in, I'm blown away. The boost side gives a really great "pushed" sound that fattens things up beautifully without adding too much color. It also gets pretty gritty if you jack up the gain but that's what Dan's side is for! Dan's side is a really nice natural overdrive with a surprising range of tones. All the way from mild breakup to nasty gain. Things get even more intense and interesting when you combine both sides. So far I prefer to over saturate the drive side with the boost first but both ways sound great. Final note, I play a telecaster so my experience is all with single coils. Overall, it's magic. Highly recommend.

Great pedal and as always Ed is always helpful.

You can cover a lot of ground with this pedal, from edge of breakup to full saturation. This sounds full and not too mid range focused, at least for me. I love this paired with my strat.

I've had this pedal since it was released, and I still love it. It's one of the few I've actually kept in my stable. I've also been using it on bass recordings - it sounds huge! For a live rig, it may benefit from a post-EQ to keep the low-lows, but so far at home I can't tell that it's lacking. Killer pedal for pretty much everything.

Two Great Pedals in one. The Dan side is similar to a Fultone OCD pedal but a little smoother. The Mick side is somewhere between a tube screamer and a Klon Centaur. You can place either side first or completely separate them into two units. If the Mick side is first, it pushes the Dan side even further into saturation without getting muddy. If the Dan side is first, the Mick side has the clean headroom to boost the Dan side and drive you amp hard. Either way this pedal rocks. You will not be disappointed. One thing to note although it runs on 9 volts, it does not have a battery compartment. So you need to use either a center negative power supply, a pedalboard power supply or an external battery to operate it. It does have the standard power input jack found on most pedals.

I bought this pedal when I made the switch to a Fender amp. I went with this one thanks to the 5-star reviews on Sweetwater, with almost no research thereafter. It was a good purchase.

The left side of this drive can be as subtle or insane as you want. The right side is a boost/drive, and can give you a great overdrive tone. Pete Honore at Anderton's compared the right side to a Klon. I have no experience with a Klon or anything Klon-like, but I think he's right. The tone control can produce some insane treble boost. I regularly stack the right side on top of other pedals, and I think it adds something to any other pedal in my chain.

Being able to swap which side of this pedal is the input to the other side is a fantastic feature. You can use it to great effect in either direction.

Wow! This thing is lush. Love it. The boost side can be pretty transparent if that's what you are looking for. Beautiful breakup. Sometimes I forget I have that side engaged. I really like it cuz it retains the sound of the guitar, just adds a little sass. The overdrive side is awesome as well. It goes from moderate drive to shred. Even at its most overdrive point it still upholds the sound of the guitar. If you are on the fence with this, buy it. It is literally the best drive pedal I've ever played. And I've owned quite a few!

Love listening to That Pedal Show. Dan and Mick are a huge influence on my pedal purchasing decisions and I wanted to show my support by purchasing the D&M Drive. It sounds fantastic. I don't need another drive or boost. It's just killer. Keeley did an amazing job on this one. Thanks Sweetwater as always. Great customer service keeps me coming back.

Wow, just got this pedal tonight. Plugged it in and was immediately blown away. You can get SO many incredible tones from this pedal. Easily go from a slight break up to full bore metal distortion. I haven't even scratched the surface yet, but was easily able to dial in Malcom Young's rythm all the way up to ripping Maiden and classic Def Leppard. Get this pedal!!

Simply out, this is the best Boost/OD pedal I have ever used in my 40 years of playing. It's very versatile - covering everything from blues to punk and even dipping its toes into old school metal. The use of TRS jacks to slit pedals within a switching system was a brilliant move as was having a switch to change pedal order. Very responsive controls. Very musical tones. Plays well with my other pedals (REVV G2, OCD, and EP Boost). It's a keeper!

This pedal is great and so versatile. I am able to get the sounds I need from it. It has also found a permanent place on my board. The only suggestion I have is that the LEDs be moved up higher. Because I am mainly a bedroom player and am usually in my stocking feet I add barefoot buttons to my pedals. The button cover the LEDs wilhen seat on a stool and playing at home. But that is a self inflicted issue and this pedal is still a 5 star plus pedal. Try one yourself!

This pedal is incredible, you can dial in tones from light boost to rusty OD and everything in between.
Keely quality at its finest. I use it with a TS mini in front of it, the tones I can dial in are unbelievably.
MaryAnn Shirley is the best and is always ready to indulge my every gear want and need. Sweetwater customer service is second to NONE!

This will be my first review on anything that I"ve purch purchased over the years. But I felt that I had to give a shout out to Spencer Kennedy. He has helped me, my family and band mates, for quite a few years now. After purchasing another OD pedal that wasn"t playing nice with my overdrive and Fries pedal, I was researching other OD pedals but really couldn"t decide what would work best for me as I play Lap Steel guitar. A lot of pedals that work for a standard guitar don"t necessarily work for Lap Steel. After an informative discussion with Spencer, he recommended the Keeley D &M Duel overdrive pedal. After a few hours of research I pulled the trigger and purchased the pedal. Really couldn"t be happier with my purchase. Extremely versatile as a standalone pedal, or in conjunction with my Wampler Soverign Distortion and/or Buffalo M-1 Fuzz pedal.

This pedal sounds absolutely amazing and I would recommend this to anyone looking for a versatile drive pedal. The drive section can deliver some very "gainy" stuff while the boost can do more clean tone rounding stuff. My one gripe is that the color of the pedal looks more orange in the pictures, it"s more like a Texas University orange if that makes sense.

I've had this pedal for about a year and use it almost every day. I have to admit though that many of my other gain, compressor and overdrive pedals are pissed that they are now living inside a box, rarely seeing the sun. Oh well, too bad. This pedal is one of the best I've ever purchased.

Ok one, ignore the price! Your getting four overdrives pretty much. Two, you're getting sonically sound overdrive. Three Sweetwater has your freaking back in the unlikely event should the pedal malfunction. I own 15 Keeley Pedals. This one is gets first place from a group of winners. There is ample boost and gain to tweak a tube amp into singing like a southern choir. Those who have not done enough research claim the boost side is a low gain tubescreamer. It's not. Robert Keeley himself stated the drive circuit falls between his White Sands Overdrive, and the Red Dirt. I find It posses more bass resonance. I love running into my Keeley Red Dirt, to fatten up the loss of bass content. The drive side harkens 80's crunch done well. This jem of a pedal is very ideal for fly dates, and open mic's.

...For years, I've been trying to dial my drive section in, so I can tap a few times and have at least 3 flavors of drive, and boost them where the harmonics dance with my main drive pedal. This Keeley fits into my pedal tonal array. I can jump into Jimi, slide over to Stevie, and get raunchy like Raw Dawg!
I'm running my board through a Fender Mustang iii, tweaked tastefully, side by side with a Marshall DSL 20 CR. The Mustang has a Celestion Greenback, and the DSL is outfitted with a Creamback. I'm a Weekend Warrior/Open Mic/Obsessive tone junkie geek/Advanced hobbiest, so I'm not running a Plexi or nuth'in of the sort.
This pedal may fall into a modern classic check out some YouTube demos.

Been searching for years for something to give my clean Fender tube amps, ie '65 drri, some Marshall dirt with sparkling harmonic overtones and controlable feedback with amp volume below 6. Found it right here. Plays seemlessly with other pedals. I play pretty much just a stock Strat through 1 or 2 of 6 or 7 pedals (max), through the '65 DRRi. Guitar centric classic rock band, indoor and outdoor parties and average size clubs. I no longer have to crank the volume to get in my zone. I would be willing to wager that it just gets better with amp cranked. Tube screamer and mxr distortion pedals are both retired now with no regret. Transparent boost at and above unity gain. An array of tone possibilities.

I love using dual gain pedals.. being a Fender into Fender player for years. I get my classic clean with reverb sound and then stack gains for rhythm and lead tones. This pedal is one of the best of tried and I own several Dual Gain type pedals. Worth the money!!

The concept of a dual overdrive is great, but what makes this pedal so wonderful is how well they executed that vision. Many of us gain stack with different pedals to varying levels of success. This makes it easy because they"re filtered in a way to complement each other. So whether you run them independently into a slightly driven amp, Dan into Mick or Mick into Dan, each combination makes sense. That takes a lot of the fiddling around out of the equation and you can just trust your ears and quickly get from one great sound to the next. Personally, I think they"re best used with lower gain settings pushing each other or pushing an amp and taking advantage of the pedals massive headroom.

Love this Pedal!

I am really liking this drive. being able to switch what one is on first makes it a lot more pedal than if it didn't.
set it up to boost after 2 other drives and before 1 distortion mixes well with all of them and gives me more options for my older drives Great pedal

This pedal is everything it has been hyped up to be. Was very skeptical but was surprisingly pleased. It"s very dynamic and keeps the personality of every different type of guitar I play through it

Not an inexpensive pedal but what quality gear is? Extremely flexible and delivers a broad selection of tones, from clean boost to soaring overdrive depending on your settings. The order selection switch is an awesome addition and allows you to select a volume boost or dirty up your tone by slamming the front end of the Dan side. Mick"s side is somewhere in between a TS and a Klon whereas Dan"s side is between an OCD and a Marshall Guv"nor. For a Blues/Rock player such as myself it"s a versatile and worthy addition to my rig.

Both sides of this puppy are extremely good pedals. Highly versatile for stacking with anything. I have a JHS Sweet Tea V3 after this and the options are rather infinite. This is reported to be a mod'ed OCD(L) and a mod Klon circuit(R), Keeley has done it again, this is a great pedal, I can't see anything bumping this off the board it just does not get any better. There are no bad tones here from low gain to up and everything in between.

I bought this pedal because I was a fan of the show and I just thought it would be cool to have. The first time I plugged it in I was blown away! I have been trying to down size my pedal board lately. Which led me on this search for a drive pedal for awhile to get me from a nice blues tone to a hairy fuzzy drive and everything in between. I had tried pedal after pedal and different combinations stacking and restacking pedals. Turns out this is what I was looking for. Put both sides on 2 o clock and you get this unreal tone. I play through a fender deluxe reverb it turns that modest amp into a fire breathing rock machine! Very well thought out pedal from two modern legends of the game.

No, I'm not gonna say it's the "last drive you'll ever need", because c'mon - pedals are awesome!
But it is probably the most useful, flexible, and great-sounding drive pedal for almost anything. I've read that it's basically a sort-of Klon-klone plus a sort-of OCD-clone, which makes sense since they both work with all pickups, all amps, all guitars. I think it sounds absolutely killer into a clean amp, and even the "Dan" side (OCD-clone) sounds just killer into a full gained-out amp. Great purchase, a damned steal at its price, soft-click switches and the top-mount jacks are icing. My only gripe is that the LEDs might have been different colors, but whatever.

Can't be more happy with this pedal. I play a Fender Strat (with single coils) stereo into Mesa Boogie Express 5:25+ and Fender Blues Junior. Currently I have the pedal set up/split to work with a loop switcher (really love that this pedal can do this via internal dip switches). I have the Drive side and a Keeley modded Blues Driver set up to go into the Boost side. I love what the Boost side does to both drives...shaves off a bit of low end and adds some mids...just what the doctor ordered for cutting through the mix in a band situation. The Boost side also does something pretty special to my Blues Driver...I've never been completely satisfied with the high end of the BD pedal when used for crunch...I've adjusted tone knob on my guitar, tweaked treble on my amp...was able to get it manageable, but that was it. The Boost tames the high end of the BD2 wonderfully. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this pedal. Also, if you're a guitar nerd and you've never checked out That Pedal Show, you just gotta...Dan and Mick are awesome!

Just buy it and be done. This has replaced some really good (and pricey) drives on my board.
I've never been more satisfied with an overdrive/distortion pedal.

OK, no pedal I"ve ever played in my 40 + years of gigging ever deserved 5 stars in my opinion, but the D&M Drive comes as close as it gets when it comes to a true "plug & play" pedal that works as well with a Tele, Strat or Humbucker guitar that I"ve had the pleasure of playing in a very, very, long time. You"d actually have to try to make this pedal sound bad because straight out of the box, everything set to noon, it sounds great. So I love that the smallest of tweaks to the Drive, Tone and Level Control"s give you an endless supply of tonal possibilities.

All you need is a decent single channel amp and the D&M Drive would be the only pedal you"d ever need to cover everything from Modern Country, Blues, and Classic Rock. I personally prefer to run it in the "Boost" mode setting so I can set my amp to the edge of breakup and get some classic tube saturation, then be able to kick on the Drive side on to get some great sustaining lead tones. I mainly play an SSH style guitar, so this pedal is the perfect tool for that configuration in my opinion. I"ve owned other Keeley Pedals, (Compressor, Paisley, Red Dirt), but this is their best effort to date based on my experience with mutiple standalone Keeley dirt & boost pedals.

Keeley & D&M designed and produced a great,
diverse drive pedal. A drive pedal which one can
dial in many super overdrive/fuzz/distortion
sounds. Being able to stack the drives into each
other gives one many sound alternatives. In short
and in my opinion, an excellent dual drive pedal!!!

This is the first drive pedal I have owned that can actually do what a good amp will do. I AB it against my amp head on the gain channel and it is so close its astonishing. The drive side (Dan) is the reason I bought this thing and it has lived up to what I had hoped for. My favorite setting is to send the boost into the drive for a saturated lead tone. The boost side does a really nice John Mayer type of thing. I own a Soul Food and the boost side will do that sound with a little more gainon tap.
The only thing I have noticed so far is that it can get a hair bright so you have to watch that. But its as simple as rolling off the tone on either side. This thing is an absolute hit. One of the first drives I did not have semi buyers remorse over (the soul food also gets that prize).
An absolute beast at any price. You do get what you pay for. Thx to Dan and Mick and of course Mr. Keeley for my new fav toy.

I've had this pedal on my board for a couple of weeks now. The Drive side has a huge amount of gain on tap. More than I expected really. I'm running the gain and level dials pretty low and it's still plenty for my needs. It's definitely an awesome rock and roll sound. Not too much color to it either, just lots of awesome gai. The Boost side has a great sound too, that is definitely different than the drive. Could use it a few different ways: just to add a touch of grit on top of your clean tone, boost your overall volume for certain parts, push the Drive side, etc. I'm using the Drive side for higher gain rhythm and lead parts. The Boost side also works really well after my JHS SuperBolt to give that some extra juice for lead parts too. It's a great sounding pedal that provides multiple options to shape your tone.

I have had this for several weeks playing it with a Fender Telecaster and a Deluxe Reverb. Very pleased, particularly with a very nice, creamy overdrive added to the pallet. Really great add. Needing to get some shoes with sharper toes--it is easy to press both buttons at once...

A welcomed addition to my pedal board. This Pedal is exactly what I've been looking for.

Both sides sound fantastic independently and stacked but I was really hoping they'd stack more like a TS into a dirt pedal. When stacking boost into dirt, the boost side's 'level' is more like a volume knob than a blend as you'd experience on a TS type pedal. So rather than just juicing a dirt pedal or amp it seems to add either too much of itself or too little of itself, again behaving more like a volume. ...if that makes sense. Hard to get something that works for me. With a TS type pedal, the level knob would behave as increasing or decreasing the mix/attack but having no real effect on volume ...so being a few clicks off either way aren't going to make you stop and try to tweak in the middle of a song as this pedal will. With this one, if you use it as I would with boost into dirt, you'll kick on the boost side before a solo or if you just need a bit more and bam, too quite or too loud. ...and too frustrating. Changes the volume.

Being a huge fan of the show, I really wanted to love this pedal. First, the good: This thing is extremely well built. Strong enclosure with a great paint job. Form factor is perfect and the layout is easy to understand. Not too big for a dual drive. Jack"s on top are a good idea. Both sides have loads of level on tap. Now, the bad: the Dan side is just not my cup of tea. Not really a knock on quality, I just really don"t like the breakup character and I find the low end a bit wooly for my taste. I"m sure plenty of people will love it. I"m just not one of them. When they say that the Mick side has a mid hump, they are understating it a bit. It"s more of a mid mountain. That"s my only real gripe there. I think any future versions of this pedal would benefit from a 3 band EQ on each side. I know that would probably make the pedal bigger and more expensive, but it could"ve kept me using it. Glad this pedal has had such great success. I just took the one star cuz I didn"t "love it".

A longtime fan of TPS, I had to get this pedal. It's honestly not anything I likely couldn't approximate with my loads of other pedals, but it's damned cool. The switchable stacking is very nice. If I had a gripe/criticism, it's that the LEDs are the same color....

I have owned the D&M Drive for a few years now, and just getting around to writing a review. It is a pretty good pedal to me for getting more classic gain sounds that you might have heard in the 70s, 80s, early 90s.

I play through a Peavey Classic 50 usually with humbucker shreddy ibanez guitars. I usually tend toward the more modern heavy high gain sounds, and purchased the D&M to be something different. And that's exactly what it is... different from a modern high gain sound. Is it Perfect? No. But it definitely is on the nicer end of the spectrum than some budget pedals. It does it's job and does it well.

The drive side is a smooth (somewhat dark/muddy to me) scooped gain. To my ears it is NOT transparent, definitely colors your amp tone, in a good way for me, but maybe not for some. I would recommend trying it out to hear if you are on the fence. The range of gain and tone is pretty impressive, going from a barely noticeable classic crunch to borderline heavy grungey distortion. And the tone is the same way, from muddy low mids to sharp cutting high mids.

The boost side was actually the surprise for me, and has become that sort of "always on" brightener / tone shaper. It's NOT Klon-ish and also NOT TScreamer-ish. It is a boost! (caveat is that my amp is 50 watts, so through less wattage the boost may cause more break-up) and the gain knob is probably inconsequential. Don't get me wrong, the gain knob works, just not be necessary because I mostly use the level and tone to shape the sound. If you've watched That Pedal Show, then you probably know that putting everything at 2 o'clock on the boost side is where it's at.

99.99% of the time I use the option of "Boost first". That way it saturates the drive sound, giving me more sustain and squishiness under the fingers. I also use the boost to do the same thing to amp's second channel, again saturating the gain for a smooth spongy lead tone.

Bottomline: I would say it may not be for everyone, so if you get a chance to try it out first, do so. Otherwise, if you are into classic rock (not modern hard rock or metal) and this fits your budget, then give it shout and be pleasantly surprised like I was.

Being a huge fan of that pedal show I wanted to love this pedal so badly. But the boost side never gave me that klon style sparkle, rather full, very full in the low and mid mids. The drive side was ok but fizzy on the top end and lacking low end clarity. I will say this though stacked together they did sound big. Sorry Dan and Mick im returning your beloved pedal but I'm still going to watch your channel.

Have to play with it a little longer I like the ideal drive and boost on one pedal, but, depends on what the amp you use, like I said my opinion